“We know that there is a national midwifery shortage and that midwives and doctors are working at an unbearable pace at times.

“What we see here at Switalskis is the true human cost of the mistakes that are inevitably made.

“I am just in the process of settling a claim for a local young man which, over his lifetime, will cost the NHS over £6m for his care and other needs.

“He suffered a severe brain injury in the early days after he was born which was entirely avoidable.

“All that needed to happen in his case was for the midwives to listen to his mum when she was concerned that he wasn’t feeding properly.

“They didn’t listen to her and he suffered a hypoglycaemic fit which caused uncontrollable epilepsy and irreversible brain damage.

“What we have been able to do is to obtain compensation that will provide 24-hour care, appropriate and supportive therapy for the rest of his life, even when his parents are not around to do that for him.

“I have always been keen to share my experiences from the patient’s side and have been involved in training programmes within hospitals looking at patient safety issues.

“We have so many more enquiries now than we can deal with and so often we have to turn cases away.